A somewhat topsy-turvy week finishing off some last-minute tweaking to the Peter Jackson's London Is Stranger Than Fiction book, which can now be pre-ordered. This work has overlapped with my attempts to get the next book underway... actually a return to my Mike Western biography project which came to a grinding halt just over a year ago when my computer went belly-up.
Actually, 2011 was my second attempt to complete the book; the first time was in 2008, but the wind was rather taken out of my sails when Mike died. Given its history, I'm almost tempted not to admit that I've done any work on it at all and just keep my mouth shut and my fingers crossed.
The first of our Sexton Blake Annual reprints should start shipping at the end of next week, which will allow people who get paid at the end of the month to grab a copy with the discount. The discount will end on 30 June. Click the above link and scroll down if you haven't ordered your copy yet.
Working on the project I'm not talking about, I had a great time yesterday reading episodes of The Wild Wonders. I haven't read them for years and had forgotten that the story begins with British athletes arriving at Worrag Island in order to train for the Tokyo Olympics. Can you imagine Team GB 2012 heading off to the Outer Hebrides to train?
The Wild Wonders brings back happy memories of buying my weekly Valiant comic in my local Smiths on a Saturday morning while my younger brother bought his Hurricane comic. My most memorable moment of a Wild Brothers' story (any hope of an anthology on them or Mytek the Mighty?) was in a cricket match when they needed 7 (?) to win so a 6 was no use and with only 1 ball left they hit the ball to the farthest part of the ground without it crossing the boundary rope (and becoming 4 runs) and then scampering like mad for the required 7 runs! Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteA new project involving Valiant characters? My nose just shot out the window with unbridled curiosity!
ReplyDeleteBill Fleming
The project I was hinting at was my Mike Western biog, which I have been promising to finish off for some years.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to reprint The Wild Wonders for a new generation of readers but it's unlikely to happen any time soon.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteA little slow off the bat (so to speak) but I recognise the storyline you mention. It's the climax of a cricketing yarn that ran during the summer of '65 and that particular scene appeared in the issue for 21 August 1965.